PALM BEACH POST: Large algae bloom forms on Lake O; could we see a repeat of 2016?

posted by Everglades Trust | 0sc
August 01, 2017

Palm Beach Post: Written by Kimberly Miller. July 30, 2017.

Florida’s freshwater heart is choking on nutrient-laden inflows from the north, south and east this summer, but Treasure Coast waterways have so far been spared the damaging Lake Okeechobee discharges that seeded 2016’s widespread algae bloom.In a move that hasn’t been made since 2014, the Army Corps of Engineers is letting Martin County’s St. Lucie Canal run into Lake Okeechobee to increase lake levels lowered by spring drought.

Water from the canal, also called the C-44, comes from the east. It’s a reverse of what happened last summer where water from the lake went through the canal into the St. Lucie estuary.